Guardian
by xXFinalFantasyFangirlXx
Summary: Joshua X OC, AU I have no idea why I wrote this. Please don't flame, I am new to stuff like this, but constructive criticism is appreciated. I hope youo like! Summary: Joshua is sent as a guardian angel to protect Ari, a girl who is abused and beaten by her family and classmates. But will protector and victim develop into a bigger relationship? Horrible summary XD


Chapter One: Guardian

I ran harder, panting. I spared a split second to look behind me. Bad move. They got closer and closer as I ran, seeming to never tire of their energy and hate. I wanted to stop, to rest, to breathe without my throat screaming for air, but I couldn't. I had to keep running. I was almost home, though home didn't offer any more protection. At least I could rest, after enduring the torture I was running from in the first place. I ran as fast and hard as I could, my legs sending constant messages to me to stop, rest, breathe, but I refused. My determination to get out of this again led me through everything I was enduring. Suddenly, I saw a flash of pure white wings, and my pursuers were knocked to the ground, finally giving me a chance to stop. I looked up, breath ragged and weak, at my savior. An. . angel?

He spoke softly, seeming to know exactly what was going on. "Hello. You're Ari, right?" I could only nod, as I was still gasping for breath and shocked. "I'm sorry if I startled you. I'm here to help you, as your guardian angel. My name is Yoshiya Kiryu, but I prefer being called Joshua or Josh." I was so stunned I stepped back, tripping on something that had fallen in the process, seemingly a crowbar or something, and messing up my ankle. Yoshiya bent over and helped me up, though I almost fell again. It was only twisted, but it hurt like heck and I couldn't stand on it. He picked me up and carried me home, telling me that I would be able to leave there soon. I wouldn't have to stay with the family who doesn't deserve that title any longer. I silently thanked whoever had sent Josh to me with all my heart.

(Author's Note: I got the first part of this story as an idea from another fanfiction I read, and I do not claim ownership to the story, but I changed the idea. Different characters, different story really. Also I am giving credit so you can just get off my case if you think it's plagiarism. Goodbye :})

I was finally home. Well, that didn't mean much to me, but at least I was somewhere else now. Joshua told me that he would come to get me whenever I was ready. I went in, ready to face the worst. Which of course, I did. Because according to Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will.

My dad screamed at me when I got home. "Where were you, you little *insert very bad word that I will not write here*?!" "I was chased again," I told him, unafraid now that Joshua was going to protect me. "Well, then you can make up for your lateness and stupidity by taking this," he said, and I knew exactly what was coming. I knew the moment he pulled out a knife.

He forced me down and dragged the blade down my right arm, tearing my skin deep and leaving a 1 inch deep at least cut down my arm as he cut me. I was shocked I lived through this. It was like he knew I was leaving tonight and decided to make the most out of the last time he could abuse and torture me. He finished the first cut and continued to make more, staining my arm and clothes red and his hand as well. He did this a few more times, then cut my other arm the same way. By now I had lost so much blood that I was unconscious and couldn't feel the pain, which was probably better for me, but at the time really sucked, as that made me more vulnerable to death from blood loss, since I wasn't trying to keep myself awake and therefore wasn't trying to make my blood flow as well.

I woke up at sunset, with Joshua sitting on my bed holding a backpack. "I assumed you would need this to pack in," he said, looking at my injuries. I looked down at them, they were still open and bleeding. "I only really need my books and a couple outfits, can you grab that? I really don't think I can move my ankle, even, much less my arms." He did, and seemingly effortlessly lifted me in his arms and floated off the ground, going out the window. "I hope you aren't afraid of heights," he said with a small smile. Well shoot. I was screwed then.

Chapter Two: The School Difference

I woke up at a house that seemed slightly familiar, but I felt a presence different from any other place I had ever been. I looked up and saw Joshua kneeling next to me with a roll of bandages, wrapping them softly around my arm. "Shoot. You woke up before I could clean your other arm," he muttered, but I heard him. I knew he wanted me asleep so that it wouldn't hurt me, but I didn't say anything about it. He took a clean cloth and laid it on my unbandaged arm. "Tell me if this hurts," he said, and started wiping the cuts clean, making it sting like heck, but I wasn't about to say anything. I was too stubborn for that. Slowly, he cleaned the grit and dust out, and it started to feel good as he finished and started applying bandages. That hurt though. The first time he tried to wrap it tightly around my arm, I screamed. Not that loudly, but a scream anyway. He touched my forehead softly, and I wondered why he did this to this day, but something changed. He muttered something to himself that I couldn't hear, but it sounded like, "She's sick and hurt. And god **** it, she has so many bruises I can't even count them. What has she been getting herself into?" Which sounded like something he would say, but still. I wondered.

I waited until he came back to say anything, but he knew it would hurt if he tried to put bandages on again. He brought some kind of pill with him and told me to take it. I did, assuming it was some kind of painkiller, but I was almost instantly knocked out. Really, Joshua? Was that necessary? Oh well. When I woke up from that, he was completely done and I had some cold compress thing on my forehead. He told me I had a fever, and therefore was going to rest that day. Tomorrow I was going to have school again, but Josh would be there. Somehow this made me feel safer.

The next morning, Joshua woke me up and gave me something to eat before we left. Ten minutes later, we were on the bus to school. The bus with stupid classmates throwing crap at me and laughing if it hurt. I could see from Joshua's eyes that he wanted to get up and punch the crap out of them, but we were on a god dang bus. A bus. Therefore, Joshua could not stand up and punch the crap out of someone. But he could pull rocks out of the middle of nowhere and throw them back. This humored me, Joshua throwing rocks at bullies throwing other random stuff. I was laughing pretty hard when I saw one of them catch his rock and throw it back, hitting him in the head and starting blood. "Ow. That hurt, **** it!" he yelled, and got up. "Josh! Sit down!" I shouted, getting up after him. God dang it, I hate buses. I should have walked today.

The bus made a swift turn, and threw us to the side. Next thing we all knew, the bus was rolling down a freaking HILL. God dang it. Did I mention I hate buses yet? (AN: Yes. In fact, you have mentioned this at least three times now.) Josh seemed like a blur during this. Just as it crunched to a stop at the bottom, actually quite near the school, he jumped up, pushed open the emergency hatch, and pulled me through. Good job. We ran to school, the others following behind. And somehow, we made it in before the bell rang. (AN: 2 things. A: There are a lot of ANs. B: ACHIEVEMENT GET!)

School was lame. As always. Although I did, to my credit, get all the answers I was asked right. I got jumped after school too. Really, could this day get any worse? Joshua jumped up and jump kicked the leader in the face, then flipped him straight over. Well, that was pretty cool. I joined him happily in fighting them, roundhouse kicking at least one of them in a place that no male wants to be roundhouse kicked. Laughing, Joshua high-fived me for that. I smiled, my first smile in a while, and finished taking the attackers out. Josh picked me up and carried me home bridal style. *BLUSH*

I had nightmares that night. I saw myself in a dark room, with Joshua looking at me through the only tiny window. I saw spiked walls closing in on me slowly, and screamed for him to let me out. He just smirked at me and continued to watch as I was closed in on and crushed. A trapdoor beneath my feet opened, dropping me into a small room with a fire incinerator thing nearby. Josh dropped in too, lifting me up. "Would you rather do this easily, or hard?" he asked me with a grin of pure evil. I realized what he was thinking. The fire. He was going to burn me. He seemed to see that I wasn't struggling, and carried me over. He fake dropped me, making me shriek, and then actually dropped me. Right as I hit the bottom, burning, I woke up. Sweat was pouring down my face and I was scared ****less, but Joshua came over to me, holding me and stroking my back, calming me. I told him about my dream, and he sat in silence for a few minutes. I wondered what he was thinking, when he finally said, "You know that I would never do that to you, right?" "Yeah, of course." "That's all that matters. It was just a dream. You're safe now." I crawled over next to him and fell asleep, curled up by his side.

Chapter Three: I Have Absolutely No Title Whatsoever For This Chapter. X3 (Poking)

I was bored. I'm always bored now. Not that that's a bad thing, because the only entertainment I ever used to have was trying to either run from bullies or avoid torture from my parents, but I wanted something to do. Joshua was asleep on the couch, and that made me laugh. I never actually saw him asleep before. He had refused my offer to help him study for the upcoming midterm exams and since they were next week and it was Wednesday now, he was cramming. I didn't think he would have to, seeing as he seemed to know so much, but it was kind of entertaining to see him actually having to work hard at something. So I went over to him and poked him. He twitched. So I poked him again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. . . until he woke up and screamed, "STOP ****ING POKING ME, ****IT!" "Jeez," I said, my eyes watering. "Oh god. Are you okay? I didn't mean to yell at you, I thought you were just some random person. Don't cry. Oh, ****." I was crying. For three reasons. One, he had yelled at me, which I never thought he would do, two, he had cursed at me. Even rarer. Three, he said 'I thought you were just some random person.' Who else would I let in? Was he calling me someone random? At that point, for the first time since I met Joshua, I thought he really might not care about me.

Chapter Four: Hospitalization and Joshua's Reflections

I went out for a walk to cool my nerves, because as you could probably tell, I was pretty angry and definitely sad. Paying no mind to the traffic lights –the street was usually pretty much quiet- I started to cross the road. Just then, a truck that came through every so often barreled through the light and crossroads, crashing straight into me. All I heard was Josh's scream and the screech of the driver's brakes before everything went dark and I lost consciousness.

: JOSHUA'S Point of View:

I was sitting in the intensive care unit next to Ari, thinking about what a horrible guardian angel I was. I had made her cry, and now she was in the hospital dying because of me. How much worse can an angel get? I assumed we could never mess up, that we always did what we were supposed to do the right way. So why had I screwed up so badly? Maybe I wasn't meant to be an angel after all. Right now, I definitely didn't deserve it. What am I going to do now? All the **** that I've done, I screwed up the life of the girl I was sent to protect, the girl I love –wait, did I just say I loved her? I did. Maybe I do love her. But that's ridiculous, I'm an angel and she's mortal. I can't love her. Then again, I am going to age with her and return to my normal age and looks when she does die. But that better not be now.

It had been days now since Ari was hospitalized. She was officially declared comatosed by the doctors yesterday, and they had a heart monitor, IV, life support, all kinds of crazy machines I can't even name hooked up to her to monitor her life and strength. Basically watching everything that happened to her. I honestly have no idea what they were doing, I think it had something to do with blood samples or something but I don't know why. They told me she had symptoms of serious blood problems, seeming to have metal in her blood system, possibly even lead. Which would mean she had lead poisoning. The lead was apparently highly unlikely, it was probably some kind of metal they would make pipes with, but it was a plausible thought. So I waited. I wondered, when will she wake up? And if she does, _will she ever forgive me?_

Chapter Five: Will She Forgive Me?

Will Ari ever forgive me? If she lives, I will stay with her knowing I caused her near-death. If she dies, I will return, lost, a failure, and I will probably be rejected by the angels. Where will I go then? Will I become mortal? Will I go down to the Underworld? "I have no effing idea, but your rambling is driving me up the wall," I heard from behind me. That voice was familiar, almost too familiar. I turned around. **Ari****?** "Yes, it's me, you idiot. The one who you made get so upset she ran out in the middle of the road, got hit by a truck, and is currently hooked up to about a million ****ing machines that don't even do anything. Also, your thinking out loud is really annoying." "I'm sorry. Ari, I never meant for you to get hurt. I can't believe this, I thought all angels could do was protect, not hurt. I never wanted this." "I forgive you, idiot. How could I not? I never blamed you. I was thinking, you know, when I was in that coma. It was actually quite nice there. Very quiet and peaceful." "No crap. You were completely alone, after all." "Hey, can I leave?" "If they say so." Just then, one of the doctors came in and stood in outright shock seeing me awake. "What? Was I not supposed to wake up?" I asked rhetorically. "No, we just- you know what, you can go. You're free to leave," he said. I to this day have no idea what happened to him. Maybe a change of heart? All I knew was that I was still bored, and now I was hungry and irritated, too. Well, crap. I don't really care.

I think Joshua was really worried that I wasn't talking to him. He asked me what was wrong, why I didn't talk much now. My only answer was, "I don't want to talk. Go away." I felt awful. I just couldn't get why no one would leave me alone. I kept hearing voices, telling me random things, repeating pointless phrases. At the time it was just "Wake up. Open your eyes. Are you blind? Why can't you see this?" Things like that. It got worse. Much, much worse.

(AN: There seem to be less filler chapters than I thought in this. Honestly, there haven't really been any. I feel kind of proud of this. )

Chapter Six: Do You Need Therapy? (No. Shut Up.)

The voices in my head got to the point where I couldn't ignore it anymore. What they were saying hurt. It gave me headaches, screwed up my train of thought, messed up my head generally. I couldn't focus on school, which sucked since it was midterms now. (Yes, I was only in a coma for like a week and they moved the exams a week later anyway. :P) And worst, it hurt my emotions. I didn't know why the voices said it, but it hurt. A lot. Josh didn't really notice, or at least he pretended not to. I was glad for that. I couldn't really take the idea of someone constantly worrying and asking about it. I felt like I was falling, the world was spiraling. The midterms were the first thing on my mind then though. I studied every night for the next tests, keeping myself up until 1 am or later to understand it. I could work pretty late, you know. Josh didn't do the same, he had time to study while I was in the hospital. He already seemed to know everything. He wouldn't help me after 10 pm though, due to "our combined need for sleep." So I crammed like there was no tomorrow, which seemed kind of stupid to say, seeing as I was studying specifically for the next day. I finally made it through the midterms, which I thought were a little hard for someone who is just a freshman, though I was in a lot of the honors classes. I hated the Language exam the most because of all the boring grammar and spelling that I already knew and bored myself with, though the short story was alright. I really like Science, because we basically got to do any experiment we wanted and then do a lab report on it. Math was also pretty cool, solving for x, conversions, and some other stuff like that. History was okay. It was always a boring subject to me, if we can't do anything to make the past different, why learn about it? It doesn't matter now unless you want to be the president. Or a history teacher. But those seemed weird to me, and I didn't live in America anyway so why bother learning that stuff to be the president? Well, I like learning about wars, I will say that. I did pretty well on all of them, I think. Can't say for sure till I get the scores back. Hope I didn't fail anything because the midterms are like a third of your grade in our school. Then the final exams are like another third and a sixth or something and the other stuff is the rest. Well that isn't really relevant, but I thought I might as well tell you.

The next week, we got our midterm grades back. I read mine to myself, and Joshua read off his. I didn't hear much, though, because I was listening to the voices in my head. All I really heard was that he got a B in Science or something. I got an A so I felt proud but the voices shut off that pride pretty fast. I realized I was clutching my head, and Josh walked over to me, asking if I was alright. I said I just needed to go to my room for a bit. I sat in there listening to what they said. "You're weak. Stupid. No one likes you. Just die. Do you really think you're worth anything. Joshua doesn't care about you. No one does. You don't deserve anything you have. Your old life of torture was better for you. You always screw everything up. You have no friends because you are worthless to people. Shut up and get away from the good people. Do you deserve them? I didn't think so. Who are you?" The torture of those voices was too much for me. I wrote down everything they said, scrawling on the paper, the walls, the desk, everywhere covered in what they said, all the bad things. I wrote them everywhere. I had snapped. Screaming, I drew Xs everywhere, writing more bad things, profanity even. I took a spray can and ran out to an alley that I saw people walk through sometimes and sprayed graffiti everywhere. It looked good. Broken things, shattering, guns and bullets, bleeding roses. I saw someone come by and watched them. "Who drew this? It's like it. . . speaks to the soul. It's amazing." They walked away, and I wrote something else. –Fallen Angel Was Here. I was going to take out all my rage as the new artist. The one that spoke to the soul inside. Fallen Angel.

Chapter Seven: Fallen Angel's Work

I drew and painted all over town. At night, I would spray paint the sidewalks with blood, paint the walls of buildings with broken hearts, and color the lampposts red and purple. Everywhere I went, I always wrote –Fallen Angel Was Here. I saw people marvel and smile over my art, and some grow a look of sadness and understanding from it. I felt achieved. Sometimes I sprayed the words I heard in my head, sometimes messages to confront them. Somehow, I managed to do all this without Josh knowing. This was the part of my life where he was here, but he had no relevance or importance. He couldn't change anything if he tried. It was too much. I think he had seen it before though. One day, I did a masterpiece. It looked like a giant gaping hole in the ground, opening up to a cavern with shallow water at the bottom and different colored light, red, blue, green, orange, purple, magenta, bouncing off the pillars at the top and bottom. When Josh and I went out that morning, I purposely took him so that he would see it. When he looked, he was amazed. "I wonder who drew this? It speaks to the heart. It's great. Wait. . . Fallen Angel?" "Fallen Angel is the popular graffiti artist that appears all over Shibuya at random times to draw. They usually seem to draw at night, I have never seen them out in the day." I was telling Joshua, but he turned to me with suspicion. "Are you Fallen Angel?" "Me? You really think I could ever do anything like that?" "Maybe. I have seen her other stuff, it seems like something you would do. It explains what you're always looking at though. Your criticisms of her art are weird. Like you try too," he told me. "Nah. I could never be that good at art. Fallen is amazing. I'm really jealous, but I could never be as good as she is." One day, I found a post on a bulletin board. It read, "Looking for graffiti artist Fallen Angel. Will pay 5,000 dollars for her to paint something outside my store. If they read this, please contact me." With an email and phone number at the bottom. Disguising my voice, I called them. "Hello?" The man said. "Hello. I saw your notice on the bulletin board. This is Fallen Angel. What do you want me to draw?" "Umm. . . do you already know the store address?" "Yes. What is the request?" "Some of your messages, the bad ones and the counters. Also, something pretty. A backdrop like stars or something. I saw your cavern." "Alright. When do you want me to do this?" "Whenever you can. Tonight, even. How do you want me to send the money?" "Just leave it outside the night after it is painted. That way my end is held up." "Alright. Thank you." He hung up. This was the first request I had ever gotten, but it was relatively easy. And five thousand dollars? That was a good deal.

That night, I headed over to the store. On the columns, I painted black, white, gray, and neon colors. Above the sign, I did a backdrop of stars with a small flying angel. And around the outer walls, I wrote the messages I had heard that day and the counters I came up with. I left as the sun rose. The next night, when I returned, there were 6,000 dollars there. There was also a note saying, "You did more than I asked and today I got more customers than ever. Here is an extra thousand." "Seems legit," I thought, and added that to my college fund. Just kidding. I saved it for a lot of different things. And of course went on a shopping spree for video games and random junk food plus a few new outfits and combat boots, my old ones were worn out. I started getting a few requests a month, and then got around ten. I always did them, getting paid a substantial amount. After four months of that, it was summer. Exams had come and gone, and I was painting more than ever. But that all changed when Joshua saw me out at midnight. Drawing on walls with a spray can.

Chapter Eight: Caught In the Act

"You told me you weren't Fallen!" "I'm not sorry! All this time, I have been half-dying from the pain of the voices in my head and your ignorance towards me, you didn't notice at all! This was my only refuge, only sanity for so long. You have no idea what I went through! So shut up! Listen, I would give up everything for you! I almost have! And yet, when I'm hurting, YOU DON'T EVEN ****ING NOTICE! I LOVE YOU, AND YOU'RE TEARING ME APART!" I shouted, tears streaming down my face. I had so much going on I just said it all.

Joshua came over to me and held me close. He kissed my forehead softly. "I'm sorry. I wasn't angry. I just thought you were telling me the truth and you lied to me. I am your guardian angel. What did you think would happen if you told me, silly? I'm sorry that I am hurting you. I would give everything for you as well. And I love you too. You probably won't believe it. But it's true."

Josh picked me up bridal style and carried me to my room. He sat there with me for what could have been hours, listening to me cry and whatever muffled words I said. He knew what I was going through. I had a hard time dealing with my emotions, he knew this already. I had serious emotional instability and there was really nothing anyone could do to fix that. So Joshua just sat there, seeming to perfectly understand what was going on, and knew just being there would be the best thing for me right now. So he stayed. Minutes, hours, it could have been any amount of time. He stayed through everything, the crying, the ranting, the screaming and writing on the walls, and watched with an arm around my neck as I drew a picture of a chained angel with a bandaged wing. "This is what I am going to draw next," I said as I showed Joshua my picture, and he smiled. "I think the city would love to see it," he said, smiling warmly at me, making me feel as if I was glowing. He pulled me in and kissed me softly, the softest thing I had ever felt. It was almost like a feather touch. Then he pulled away. I curled up at his side and fell asleep happily.

Chapter Nine: Where Is This Going?

I woke up the next morning still exhausted. But Joshua had a much different idea about the day then I did, which was just sleep for me. He pulled me out the door and into the car we were renting, and we rode to some hiking thing. "Josh, I thought you hated hiking," I said absentmindedly, wondering why we were here. "Nah, I just don't like camping because you have to sleep in dirt and bugs and I hate that," he replied, also seeming to have his thoughts somewhere else. We sat at the edge of one of the big drops for a while, before Joshua jumped down, extending his wings last minute to catch himself and making sure the cable he had somehow attached to himself without me seeing was tied tightly. "Jump down! I promise I'll catch you!" he shouted up. I realized I had a cable on too. Wow, I must have been really zoned out. Oh well. I jumped, and Joshua caught me right on cue. I pretty quickly realized what we were doing. Rock climbing. "Joshua?" I said. "Yeah? Are you okay?" he asked me. "I love rock climbing, but I-I hate heights and when we get on the wall I'm going to flip out." "That's okay. If you get scared I will hold on to you." "Thanks." We started up the 30-40 foot wall of rock, me pulling myself up rock by rock. I looked down. "Josh? What are you doing?" "Ummm. . ." he looked embarrassed. "I can't figure out where to grab." I walked myself back down the wall and showed him where to put his hands and where the next spot was. He got it pretty quickly, and started up the wall. In the middle of nowhere, I asked, "Is this a date?" Josh looked at me for a second and said, "Only if you want it to be." 'I do.' I thought. I climbed up the wall, Joshua looking surprised when I seemed not scared. I told him it felt safer with him there, which was absolutely true. I always felt safer with him with me. When we got back up to the top, Joshua went into the car and got out some sort of picnic basket. He handed me something to eat and kept one for himself, and we ate those for a while, with me making pointless nom sounds as we ate. (AN: nom nom nom nom nomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomnomn omnom X3. I felt this was necessary.) Then we drove home. I felt that for a first date, this was pretty successful. I wondered, though, how far could our relationship go without screwing up, going wrong, or hitting a barrier, like all other relationships seem to end up doing?

Chapter Ten: School is Dangerous

Joshua and I pretty much made it to the "most popular" rank in school, partly because we could most likely destroy anyone who tried to stop us, partly because we were cool now, and partly because we had done a lot more than some knew for the school. It was actually kind of irritating being the popular kid. Others would come up to you and tell you about their problems thinking you could help, sometimes it just got old dealing with everything everyone else said. And it wasn't like we would ever be hosting any parties or anything. Other people were the ones doing that. I never really went to very many, although I did attend a few, like the Halloween party. That was funny to me, especially because Joshua went as the devil. Oh, the irony. I went in a costume I had made, spent weeks on even, a black cat with one neon green eye and one colored like fire, and turquoise streaks down its back. It even had a little fire colored bell pendant around its neck. 3. I had a pretty fun time, to be honest, and there was still time for trick-or-treating. You are NEVER too old for candy. At least I don't think so. Joshua didn't say anything, but when people saw him dressed up they gave him candy anyway. He gave most of it to me though, saying he didn't like candy, but I saw him eating chocolate in his room and left some of mine in there when he went out.

Joshua's Point of View (again)

I didn't really like the Halloween party. I was going to ask Ari if she would go out with me to get candy, but she was already going to the party, so I had to go with her. It seemed like she never wanted to be around me anymore. But at midnight, she came into my room, a little too energetic for me, and asked if I would come paint with her. I figured she meant Halloween graffiti, and went along with it because she had never let me watch her do that before. She went out to the sidewalk and started on what looked like a graveyard, but with 3-D zombies coming out of a few graves, a skeleton sitting on a fence, and skeletal bats on a tree with no leaves. Above all that, she drew a full moon and a pair of glowing red eyes in the bushes outside the graveyard fence. I was amazed at how fast she drew it. What shocked me was that she drew shackles on the tree with an angel with black wings, one bandaged, chained up and bleeding. She wrote a message next to it. "Happy Halloween, Shibuya. –Fallen Angel."

School the next few days was a bit boring. We did everything as usual. On the week before Thanksgiving, we all were a bit excited to get out. But on the Thursday of that week before TG, we heard the sound of a door being broken down and gunfire. (AN: duh duh duh PS it's out of Josh's pov now) So we ran like we were supposed to do. Except me and Joshua. We saw the intruders come in, armed with loaded guns, and they held them to us. I spun and roundhouse kicked one of them in the face, then hit them in a place where no male being wants to be hit. Joshua took out the other guy, springing up and dropping down with the force of a 300 pound anvil falling. "Joshua. . ." I said. "Yeah?" "School is dangerous." "You don't say? *sarcasm*"

Chapter Eleven: My Resolve

I walked away from everything I knew, Joshua coming with me, by my side. The building in front of us was huge, even massive. It wasn't impressing me though. Nor were the fountains, flowers, scenery, or offers they made me. I was going to college here with Joshua, in America. We had long since left Shibuya, the only place I had ever lived. I hated the idea of leaving. Joshua even brought a pet with us, a kitten. We were, thankfully, allowed to keep animals. Learning to speak English wasn't hard, learning to read it and write it wasn't hard, it was just the leaving. I was nervous about being away from the only home I ever had, only place I felt safe before. But Joshua was with me, so I knew it would turn out alright eventually.

I was turning 20, and Joshua asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Seeing as it was over winter break, I knew I could get almost anything, including travel. All I really wanted for my birthday, for Christmas, whatever, was to go visit Shibuya. That was the only thing I couldn't have. I don't know why, Joshua just wouldn't agree to it. I dropped the subject, but it was all I wanted anyway. I thanked everyone for my gifts, and I know this sounds spoiled, but all I really wanted was to go home. My real home. Shibuya.

I had made a resolve to go home when we got out for the summer, and I somehow managed to do it. I finally convinced Josh it was alright for me to go. "Besides," I said, "People are probably missing Fallen Angel." Return was great. To paint again, visit the stores again, be happy there. I really did love Shibuya, and I was definitely moving back when we were out of college. I had already decided on a career, and it seemed to work pretty well from the grades I got in the subjects I needed to take for it. I wanted to be a scientist, one who makes new technology and cure discoveries, and be able to help with the calculations in Joshua's preferred job, a science engineer. I would help him out with his calculations, and he would help me with figuring out what was necessary for my projects. It was gonna be awesome.

When I turned 21, Joshua gave me the best present ever. He took me into his room and showed me something amazing. We had gotten out of college. Two years early. We were taking the classes for at least a level higher than our normal age group would, and we were already both moved up a grade or two. I was so happy that Joshua had convinced them to let us get out there, and I asked him if we were moving back to Shibuya. He told me we could if I wanted to. So of course, we went back. I kept my job as a graffiti artist despite the rest of the work I had to do, and the others we worked with called me a child prodigy. I called it hard work and a resolve to get where I wanted.

Chapter Twelve: The End. (For Now)

DO I have to write a final chapter? No? I didn't think so. Good. Because there is no need for a final chapter when it isn't the end. That's right. I'm going to make a sequel. And maybe even a sequel to that. So BE HAPPY. (this may be a lie. I am lazy. I'm also working on two other stories so if I do it will be a while.) This took a lot of work, time, devotion, and a crapload of ideas, even when I got writers block. So I hope you all liked it. Disclaimer: I don't own Joshua, he belongs to Square Enix. I do, however, own Ari, the story, (except for the very beginning the start was modeled after someone else's story) and the very creative chapter titles. Because you know that they made you laugh at least once. Come on. You know that either them or the ANs did. Give me feedback on the story, I would love to know what I can improve on for the next one!

Thanks For Reading! 3


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